The Kennedy Forum is working to ensure that patients get the mental health care they need through innovative care models and improved care coordination.

The Kennedy Forum is working to ensure that patients get the mental health care they need through innovative care models and improved care coordination.

Although effective treatments exist for most forms of mental illness, too many Americans don’t receive the mental health care they need. This is in large part because our specialty mental health care system does not have the capacity to serve this population. Increasing access to quality care will require a comprehensive strategy that fosters integration of behavioral health into our primary care system and coordination of care throughout our public systems.

People living with untreated or inadequately treated mental illnesses and addictions often live shorter and sicker lives because of untreated and preventable chronic illnesses. Integrated care programs can improve care for the millions of patients who have medical and mental disorders by providing both medical and mental health care in the same clinical setting.

The Kennedy Forum is working to advance evidence-based integration models, like Collaborative Care, that have been proven to achieve the Triple Aim of health care reform: better patient outcomes, increased patient and provider satisfaction, and a lowering of health care costs.

Why It Matters

Mental illness costs the US nearly $200 billion each year, yet only 1 in 3 patients who are diagnosed with a serious mental illness receive minimally adequate treatment.

Focus Group Participants

Carol Alter, MD

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

Charles Engel

RAND Corporation

John Fortney, PhD

University of Washington

Margot Friedman, JD

Dupont Circle Communications

David Gastfriend, MD

Treatment Research Institute

Garrett E. Moran, PhD

Westat

Irvin Muszynski

American Psychiatric Association

Joe Parks, MD

Missouri HealthNet

Karen Sanders

American Psychiatric Association

Michael Schoenbaum, PhD

National Institute of Mental Health

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About Us

Just as President Kennedy rallied the nation to dream big and set audacious goals 50 years ago, The Kennedy Forum seeks to set a new standard for the future of health care in the United States.

Our mission is big, and the stakes are clear. We seek to unite the health care system, and rally the mental health community around a common set of principles: Fully implement the 2008 parity law, bring business leaders and government agencies together to eliminate issues of stigma, work with providers to guarantee equal access to care, ensure that policymakers have the tools they need to craft better policy, and give consumers a way to understand their rights.